Until then, the storefront at 136 E. Third St. between Avenue A and First Avenue — its fourth location since opening on St. Mark's Place in 1977 — is selling off what's left of its stock at 50-percent off...

Meanwhile, there is still a movement to reopen a new bookstore somewhere in the neighborhood. Here's part of our interview from last week with Rafael Khalid, a Brooklyn resident and bookstore lover, who is helping find investors...

New bookstores give authors, poets, and writers a voice to be heard, not just in the community but in the world. Historically, people come from all over the world to the East Village to discover new talent that might not be heard or be able to breakthrough all the noise and clutter. My goal is to continue the legacy or best parts of St. Mark's Bookshop while adapting to today's environment.

Also, at the Daily News today, writer J.I. Baker recalls his time work at St. Mark's Bookshop in the late 1980s.

@ 11:03. There will always be restaurants and cafes. That business is filled with dreamers and schemers, and the economics of 15K or 20K per month probably don't look bad if your anticipating success, and who goes into business anticipating failure? The problem is that there's not much room for a middle ground. Go big or go home. But I am still wondering who is going to pay 9K for the sock man's former 500 square feet...It would have to be someone with a proven concept who wants an outpost on St. Mark's, wouldn't it?

'Guess no one reads anymore but there are still some bookstores left in the area: Mercer Street Books & Records at 206 Mercer St. bet.Bleecker & W.Houston Sts. closer to Bleecker and a block west of Broadway and Strand Bookstore at Broadway and 12th St. Any others between Houston and 14th Street river to river?

Bob and Terry were/are dreadful business people. However, I'll be sad to see them go. The amounts of money involved over the years were always fairly small but, St. Mark's created and nurtured more writers and readers than most organizations their size, certainly more than your average MFA program. More than a few literary careers were booted and boosted by St. Mark's. Bob and Terry and their buyers over the years defined what a cool, engaged, lively bookstore looked like and they influenced, at least on some level, who got around and who leapt from self-published to published to tenured. Connections were made. Writers and readers from around the world, esp. those interested in writing in the LES, visited, bought books there, took them home and introduced them to their friends and students. Writers saw that book in the window at St. Mark's and reviewed it for this publication. The amazing staff over the years was cranky and difficult but they were better educated and certainly more lively than the faculty at most MFA schools. St. Mark's never developed the community that, say, City Lights in San Francisco did but it was City Light's peer, the East Coast one-stop shopping for people who care about books, reading, and writing. Sure, life goes on. Other stores will fill some of the void but it's still painful to see St. Mark's close.

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